1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a pneumatic apparatus for the removal of particulate matter, such as lint, dust, dirt and debris surrounding textile machinery. More especially this invention relates to a mobile pneumatic appliance disposed upon a trackway or rail including means for the self-propulsion of the appliance along the trackway and means for discharging recovered lint, dust, dirt and debris from either end of the apparatus as it moves along the trackway.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Mobile pneumatic appliances are already known for sucking and blowing fiber fly or lint from textile machines, in particular spinning machines, and from the floor or other surfaces in a textile mill. Such appliances are equipped with nozzle-type suction and blowing members which are interconnected via a blower or fan. The suction and blowing members sweep over the textile machine or the floor in the vicinity of the textile machine. Between the suction members and the fans there are arranged filter means which are located in the suction current during the extraction of the lint and which can periodically be cut off from the suction current, in order to transfer the lint removed therefrom into a collection bin, and which can be impinged upon by the air-blast stream or blower current. The filter means can be acted upon by the blower current in such a way that said current is either blown through the filter means in the opposite direction to the suction direction or is fed to that side of the filter means on which the lint has been deposited. In both cases the lint is blown away from the filter means and forwarded into the collection bin.
An apparatus of this type is described, for example, in German patent specification No. 1,454,589. A stationary apparatus for the removal of lint by suction is also described in German patent specification No. 846,368, in which apparatus the lint deposited on the filter means is periodically blown from the filter means into the collection bin, when the suction current is shut off, by means of a blower current.
The known appliances have the disadvantage that when the suction current is shut off the air-blast required for transferring the lint deposited on the filter means into the collecting bin has to be aspirated from the machine room. This air still contains lint or fly. The lint can accumulate in the fan or fan motor so that frequent cleaning is necessary. Moreover, in such appliances it is desirable for the blower current, which sweeps over the textile machines or the floor zone of these machines, to be less powerful than the suction current, since an excessively powerful air blast current in the lower machine zone would lead to lint being raised in considerable quantities, which could then be sucked in by the suction members only with difficulty. In the case of an excessively powerful blower current in the region between the roving bobbins and the winding bobbins of spinning machines, the danger of thread breakage also arises. It is desirable, therefore, to divert a portion of the blower current outwards into a machine area where it cannot raise any lint, e.g., upwards.
If then the suction current through the filter means is shut off for the transfer of the lint deposited on the filter means, then it is advantageous to allow the fan to continue to operate at full power, which has the result that it is not possible to use all the lint contaminated air sucked in from outside to blow off the lint deposited on the filter means. A portion of this air contaminated with lint has to be removed by the blowing members or tubes sweeping over the machine area and also by the generally upward directed blowing ducts, so that lint again reaches the machine area or the space above the machine area.
It is therefore, an object of the invention to have a lint-free blowing current available, even when the filter means are separated from the suction current, for the purpose of blowing off the lint deposited thereon.